The 61-year-old pastor of the Presbyterian churches in Bolinas and Stinson Beach died in late April after she was diagnosed with cancer just two weeks earlier. Sharon Latour had driven north from her home in San Leandro for Sunday sermons since August 2015. She will be remembered for her loving kindness. “I was so incredibly moved by her sermons,” said Signy Coleman, a Bolinas resident who began attending services at Calvary Presbyterian Church specifically to hear Ms. Latour. “She was so positive and inspiring; she epitomized the words kindness and love.” Ms. Latour grew up in Santa Barbara, where she worked as the university’s first sports information and promotions director in her 20s. She spent her next two decades in the Air Force, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Pentagon. She was an expert in leadership theory, and wrote the Air Force instruction and regulation manual on mentoring. Ms. Latour left a Methodist church for a Presbyterian church after she was introduced to liberation theology while living in Montgomery, Ala. After retiring from the Air Force in 2005, Ms. Latour began pursuing her master of arts in theological studies from the San Francisco Theological Seminary. Two years later, she was giving sermons at a Presbyterian church in Garberville. It was after moving to San Rafael in 2014 to help the San Francisco Theological Seminary develop a strategic plan that she began filling in for Pastor Bob Grove in Bolinas and Stinson Beach. During her few years in West Marin, Ms. Latour helped organize a fundraiser in Stinson Beach to buy holiday gifts for displaced children. B.G. Bates, a representative for Calvary Presbyterian Church, said she was ramping up fundraising for a project to replace the church’s 1898 foundation—they still need more than $100,000—before she was diagnosed. Speaking to the Light in 2015, Ms. Latour noted her smooth entry into the West Marin fold. “What I truly love is that…I don’t have to teach them what community means,” she said. “They already get it, each with their own flavor. That is a joy.” Ms. Coleman said Ms. Latour would end every sermon with the same reminder: “You are beloved, and for whatever mistakes you think you made, you are already forgiven. Be gentle with yourselves.” A celebration of life for Sharon Latour starts at 11 a.m. on Monday, May 22 at St. Luke Presbyterian Church, in San Rafael. All are welcome.